Liberal leader Mark Carney promised to maintain “impulse” in reconciliation in a virtual election forum with the assembly of the first nations on Friday.
The AFN, a national Chiefs defense organization, organizes virtual forums with party leaders before the general elections of April 28. The co-leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault appeared in a session on April 14. The conservative leader Pierre Poilievre went to the forum on Tuesday and the leader of the NDP Jagmeet Singh spoke on Wednesday.
Carney opened the forum on Friday by reiterating a commitment to reconciliation, and admitted that there is much more to do on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Law of Indigenous Peoples (Untrip) and their Action Plan, the calls to the justice of national investigation to the disappeared and murdered indigenous women and girls, and the calls of the commission of truth and reconciliation to the action.
Undrip is a human rights instrument that recognizes that indigenous peoples have the right to give or retain consent for the projects that affect them. Conservatives have opposed this policy as a “veto”, while liberals approved legislation in 2021 that requires federal laws to be harmonized with Undrip.
Carney committed to the implementation of Undrip federally.
“We respect the provincial powers, but with the discharge of our federal responsibilities, the commitment of my government, if the Canadians select us, is fundamental and unwavering in its implementation,” he said.
In 2015, Justin Trudeau promised to end all long -term water notices in the first nations by 2021, but that deadline was lost. The bill C-61, the Clean Water Law of the first nations, the legislation that would establish the standards of drinking water in the reserves, did not reach the third reading in the Chamber of the Commons before the Parliament was prurrogated.
Carney said that a liberal government would reintroduce the bill C-61 and that it would take guidance on a “water commission of the first nations” type model, ensuring that the first nations have the maintenance and development capacity of its infrastructure.
The Liberal Party platform includes an approach to work “with all government orders and indigenous peoples on critical infrastructure that connects communities.”
Carney was direct with her hopes of closing the infrastructure gap between the first nations and the rest of Canada saying: “If we had to close the infrastructure gap of the first nations, that would only have a greater economic impact than the negative aspect of all Trump rates.”
Carney mentioned duplicating the indigenous loan program in a program of $ 10 billion aimed at giving the first nations the opportunity to finance the participation of the property of a project.
When asked about the people of the first nations that are not sure of their Jay’s treaty rights to release the free passage and trade with the United States for a time of agitation between the two nations, he said: “Any association we have with the United States does not affect those rights.”
When asked about surveillance, Carney suggested that the “essential service” of the communities of the first nations should be put in the hands of the same communities.
“We want to move to the police services of the first self -administered nation,” said Carney.
The day of the election is April 28.
